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Federalism

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The Constitutional Basis of Federalism

Federalism in the United States is a complex and ever-changing network of
relations between national, state, and local governments. Federalism requires that
state and local governments play a role in nearly every policy area. To fight the
War on Terror, for example, the FBI, a federal organization, seeks to cooperate with
state and local police forces. Worries about an impending avian flu epidemic have
state health agencies and local hospitals working with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the federal Department of Health. Even federal tax cuts
affect state governments because states rely on the federal government for financial
help. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to figure out where one level of
government ends and the others begin.

There are three ways to organize power among national (or central) and state
(regional or local) governments: unitary, federal, and confederal. Unitary
governments concentrate almost all government power into a single national
government, whereas confederal system disperse government power to regional or local
governments. The federal system, also known as federalism, divides
power between national and state governments. Under federalism, each level of
government is independent and has its own powers and responsibilities. Because it is
often not clear whether a state or national government has jurisdiction on a
particular matter, the national and state governments alternate between cooperating
and competing with each other.

THREE GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS

System

Description

Examples

Unitary

Concentrates all power in the hands of the national
government; state governments (if they exist at all) merely follow the
orders of the national government

Japan, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia

Federal

Regional and national governments both have real power, but
the national government is usually supreme over the regional governments

United States, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, India,
Germany

Confederal

Diffuses nearly all the power to the state governments; the
national government merely keeps the states loosely bound together

The Confederate States of America, the United Nations, the
European Union